The Great English Short-Story Writers, Volume 1

Poe himself implies this when he says, in an earlier passage of his essay on Hawthorne: "The Tale Proper" (i.e., short-story), "in my opinion, affords unquestionably the fairest field for the exercise of the loftiest talent which can be afforded by the wide domains of mere prose. Were I bidden to say how the highest genius could be most advantageously employed for the best display of its own powers, I should answer, without hesitation, in the composition of a rhymed poem, not to exceed in length what might be perused in an hour. Within this limit alone can the highest order of true poetry exist. I need only here say, upon this topic, that in almost all classes of composition the unity of effect or impression is a point of the greatest importance. It is clear, moreover, that this unity cannot be thoroughly preserved in productions whose perusal cannot be completed at one sitting."

9

In his introduction to Materials and Methods ofFiction, by Clayton Hamilton, published by the Baker & Taylor Co., New York.

10

"The short-story is artificial, and to a considerable degree unnatural. It could hardly be otherwise, for it takes out of our complex lives a single person or a single incident and treats that as if it were complete in itself. Such isolation is not known to nature." – Page 22 of Short-Story Writing, by Charles Raymond Barrett, published by the Baker & Taylor Co., New York.

11

For example, the story told by Demodocus of TheIllicit Love of Ares for Aphrodite, and the Revenge which HephaestusPlanned– Odyssey, Bk. VIII.

12

From the introduction, by Charles Whibley, to the Tudor Translations' edition by W.E. Henley, of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, published by David Nutt, London, 1893. All other quotations bearing upon Apuleius are taken from the same source.

13

The second novel of the second day, and the sixth of the ninth day.

14

In the third chapter of The Great English Essayists, vol. iii of The Reader's Library, published by Messrs. Harper & Brothers, 1909.

15

Compare with Kipling's treatment of a similar theme in The Brushwood Boy.

16

The Gesta Romanorum was written in Latin.

17

From Tales and Sketches, by the Ettrick Shepherd.

18

From The Money-diggers.

19

The pattern in method for all detective stories.

20

From Amos Kilbright and Other Stories. 1888.

21

1903

22

From The Luck of Roaring Camp. 1871.

23

From Wessex Tales.

24

1909.